We need to build a pathway for development and make field service attractive to younger engineers
We need to build a pathway for development and make field service attractive to younger engineers
With the pool of field service engineers and technicians shrinking at an alarming rate, the onus falls onto service organisations to build new pools of talent to work with.
However, this is easier said than done. Establishing a clear yet often varied pathway to progression that is more suited to the younger generation entering the workforce and making field service an attractive proposition outside of the traditional demographics is an essential task.
In the November 2022 iteration of the FSN Think Tank sessions where we were exploring if and how we need to redefine field service as we move into a post-pandemic world and the discussion inevitably turned to the challenges around finding and retaining new field service engineers and technicians.
“When we are employing the people, we cannot just be thinking about the service department,” commented Ged Cranny, Senior Consultant, Konica Minolta BEU.
“We need to be thinking about the technical sales that are coming; we should be thinking about the recruitment side of the business, about the billing side of the business. Ultimately, if we teach our people properly, then we can ‘infect’ the business in a positive way. We stick a positive virus in the business that can spread across the whole organisation,” Cranny continued.
“You give a career path to people, you start talking about what other options people have, and it makes the recruitment a slightly more straightforward process from the beginning. However, to achieve this, you’ve got to have a more open relationship with the rest of the business. Still, it is possible to build these pathways, and at some point after doing so, your people will develop a sense of belief and trust that if they’re good enough, something will happen positively in their careers.
“Then you can drive people forward in different directions – and plenty of times, we funded the actual crossover training and service for the people – because we see it as good for us to be an initial stepping stone in the process as it helps with our headcount,” he explained.
“I’ve just finished editing a great interview with the National Service Manager for Whirlpool in the UK,” Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News replied, picking up the conversation, “and there were some great points raised in that discussion about how they have tried to overcome this issue of a workforce shortage.
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"We can actually move people into manufacturing, so they stay within the organisation - whether that is design, technical sales etc. However, it is a two-way street as we have apprentices and younger people who work on our factory floor who want a shot at the travelling life..." - Thomas Bean, Service Manager, AB Graphic International
“As was stated in that conversation, if the resource isn’t there, you cannot recruit it. So their approach has been to go out and build a new talent pool of field technicians. One of the exciting things that leapt out for me was the statement, ‘we realised we could no longer hire for aptitude and had to start hiring for aptitude’,” Oldland continued.
“I think that is a realisation that a lot of field service organisations have yet to make, but they will have to do so, if they are to avoid getting into a very challenging situation in the not too distant future,” he said.
“We’ve been employing quite heavily, so we’ve got quite a lot of new people working for us,” commented Thomas Bean, Service Manager, AB Graphic International.
“We’re fortunate that we have a manufacturing department, and I work out of headquarters for a large manufacturing company, so we can actually move people into manufacturing, so they stay within the organisation – whether that is design, technical sales etc,” Bean explained.
“However, it is a two-way street as we have apprentices and younger people who work on our factory floor who want a shot at the travelling life.
“One thing we are finding is that with the new generations of people coming through millennials, etc., they favour a work-life balance other money. So they’re interested in travelling, but only one week a month, for example – so they want a bit of a mix in their working lives. In the past, we’ve always had a hard no to that. Our approach has been if you don’t travel, all the time you don’t travel. However, we’ve realised we need to relax the rules and become much more flexible,” Bean continued.
“So we actually we are now exploring and trialling opportunities for people within the organisation, for example, they may work on the shop floor as a fitter, or an electrician, or they might work in our office as a technical advisor and using them as an additional resource on a rotation of casual field service engineering. It gives them a taste of travel and a break from their day-to-day role and helps us in the service department with our headcount,” he concluded.
“It is not just a case of recruiting the right people; it’s also building the right people. You must provide new recruits with proper education, build the competencies, and explore how best to get them productive in the very early stage of that development." - Jan van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum
“I think a lot of things are changing significantly, and we are only seeing the first signs of that change,” mused Jan van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum as he reflected on the discussion.
“My belief here is that we can learn a lot from the advanced commercial strategies where you really think of the value proposition. Today, the employee value proposition is becoming more and more of a topic in companies that are more mature in their approach to recruitment. In essence, it understands what are your target groups expecting? What are their needs? What makes them tick?” Van Veen continued.
“You have to do your research. If you are trying to attract more women in field service roles or if you want to attract youngsters to see a career in field service as a valid alternative to higher education, then we old males of forty or fifty, we think we may know the answers. Still, the reality is we probably don’t. Therefore, we have to do proper research there, just like we would do with customer research,” he continued.
“We also have to ensure that the work we develop on employee brand is really visible – we have to highlight how interesting it is to work in service for our companies, and again, establish a value proposition which is attractive to those we want to see enter our workforce.
“It is not just a case of recruiting the right people; it’s also building the right people. You must provide new recruits with proper education, build the competencies, and explore how best to get them productive in the very early stage of that development. Then, ensure you retain them instead of losing them once they become productive,” Van Veen explained.
“One other point is that we must understand that operating models are changing,
“We are seeing something of a de-skilling in the field – partly driven by some of the advanced digital technologies for troubleshooting and decision-making now available. So we as service leaders should step back a moment and assess the future skills you need five years from now and start recruiting those people because otherwise, you’re just building an ongoing problem, you’re just pushing the snow pile ahead of you.
“I think these are all three very critical elements in overcoming this situation,” Van Veen concluded.
All members of the Field Service Think Tanks are speaking from their own personal opinions which are not necessarily reflective of the organisations they work for.
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